When tools are used in a manufacturing or service environment, it is important that tools be returned to a storage unit, such as a tool box, after use. Employers typically perform a manual inventory check of the tool box to minimize or eliminate the problem of misplacement or theft of expensive tools. Companies can conduct random audits of employee's toolbox to prevent theft and monitor tool location.
Some industries have high standards for inventory control of tools, for preventing incidents of leaving tools in the workplace environment where they could cause severe damage. For the aerospace industry, it is important to ensure that no tools are accidentally left behind in an aircraft or missile being manufactured, assembled or repaired. The Aerospace Industries Association even establishes a standard called National Aerospace Standard including recommended procedures, personnel management and operations to reduce foreign object damage (FOD) to aerospace products. FOD is defined as any object not structurally part of the aircraft. The most common foreign objects found are nuts, bolts, safety wire, and hand tools. Inventory control over tools is critical to prevent tools from being left in an aircraft.
Some toolboxes include built-in inventory determination features to track inventory conditions of tools stored in those toolboxes. For example, some toolboxes dispose contact sensors, magnetic sensors or infrared sensors in or next to each tool storage locations, to detect whether a tool is placed in each tool storage location. Based on signals generated by the sensors, the toolboxes are able to determine whether any tools are missing. While this type of inventory check may be useful to some extent, it suffers from various drawbacks. For instance, if a sensor detects that something is occupying a storage location, the toolbox will determine that no tool is missing from that storage location. However, the toolbox does not know whether the right kind of tool is indeed placed back in the toolbox or it is just some objects placed in the storage location to cheat the system. Furthermore, disposing sensors for numerous storage locations in a toolbox is tedious and costly, and the large number of sensors is prone to damages or malfunctions which will produce false negative or positive alarms.
Accordingly, there is a need for an effective inventory control system to assist tracking and accounting for usage of tools, and whether they are properly put back after usage. To address these issues, automated tool control systems have been developed which determine an inventory condition of objects by capturing and processing images of storage locations that are used to store the objects. Such an exemplary tool storage system is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/484,127, filed Jun. 12, 2009, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
An exemplary image-based tool storage system includes multiple storage drawers, each storage drawer including multiple storage locations for storing various types of tools. More particularly, each storage drawer includes a foam layer having a plurality of storage locations, such as tool cutouts, for storing tools. Each cutout is specifically contoured and shaped for fittingly receiving a tool with corresponding shapes. Typically, the system is “trained” to recognize the tools in a drawer by having an image sensor (i.e., a camera) image the entire drawer to create a data file, which is processed to provide positional information for all the specific tools in the drawer.
There is a need for an imaging based inventory control system which simplifies the tool training process required to store tool identification parameters for a single tool or group of tools, rather than reacquiring and storing the tool parameters for every tool in the drawer or tray.
There is also a need for reducing the current process time required to create foam layouts, and to check, approve and produce the foam layers. Further, there is a need to automate the foam changeout process and the associated updating of the system database, to avoid errors resulting from manually entering tool data.